He has been defying the Establishment gatekeepers and telling us the truth about what’s really going on in the world for over 50 years. He has covered wars around the world from Vietnam to Iraq, and is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. For many, John Pilger is the journalists’ journalist, and he came into the Sputnik studio to give us his thoughts on the state of the press today.

The West is trying to turn the Russian humanitarian aid convoy “… into a duplicitous dangerous act because it would better fit with the kind of scenario that they have been putting forth about Russia being a predator or being the provocateur,” says renowned author Dr. Michael Parenti, a political scientist from Yale University, a historian, and a cultural critic, in an interview with Radio VR. Continue reading →

“The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.” — Former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, b 1927

On February 10th 2003, German Green MP Joschka Fischer, then Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor, stunned an international security conference, in Munich’s opulent 19th century Bayerischer Hof hotel discussing the proposed invasion of Iraq, by banging on the table, switching to English to guarantee Donald Rumsfeld understood and shouted of the US arguments for war: “ … I am not convinced.” Continue reading →

“When we first learned of the opportunity to get these supplies directly to the people of Gaza via the Freedom Flotilla, we asked our partner NGOs in Gaza what we could send that would matter most to them, given the 3 year-long blockade. They asked Americans to send messages to children, along with backpacks, sports equipment, and cement to build a kindergarten.”- Donna Baranski-Walker, Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance.

In 2006 Father Manuel, the parish priest at the Latin Church and school in Gaza informed the world:Continue reading →

April 24, 2010 — Popular London rap artist, Lowkey and journalist on wheels Jody McGwire provide some warmup to Norman Finkelstein’s talk to the Arab Students Club at Brooklyn College. Jody reports of his 9 months in Palestine and Lowkey recites poetry condemning western mindset against Arabs.

One year ago today, Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead”, a murderous full-scale military assault on the small, densely populated, and defenseless Gaza Strip. The operation resulted in the massacre of over 1,300 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, including hundreds of children.

This includes only those killed directly by military attacks. The actual casualty figure from Israel’s policies towards Gaza, including the number of deaths attributable to its ongoing siege of the territory, is unknown.

Lauren Booth is speaking at “Stop The Gaza Massacre” Demonstration in London on January 10, 2009. This video clip is also planned to be included into an upcoming Gaza documentary by Joshua Smith. Lauren Booth Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Booth

There are in modern history at least two examples of captive populations; one group, the Jews, being the victims in the first instance and the perpetrators in the second instance. I am talking about the Warsaw Ghetto and the Gaza Strip. Regardless of one’s prejudices one way or the other, the facts speak for themselves and there are many similarities. Eliminating the dissimilarities first- the Gaza Strip is much larger and has more people. The Jewish population of the Warsaw Ghetto was about 400,000 and that of the Gaza Strip is approximately 1.4 million. The Warsaw Ghetto was only about 3 square miles in extent and the Gaza Strip is 131 square miles.

Combat is the best, my brother, as the famous bumper sticker reads. It’s a good thing we have Shayetet 13. Operating at the crack of dawn – or was it before nightfall? – the daring naval commandos fearlessly took control of a rusty, rickety, unarmed boat bobbing in the middle of the sea. That’s exactly why we have a naval commando force – to take control of ships offering humanitarian aid. Behold, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The military correspondents reported on the incident with an amazement that only they can muster. But even they could not provide a fig leaf for the operation: The Israel Defense Forces has once again used its power to overcome the weak; the navy has once again acted like pirates. The Arion was abducted in the framework of protecting Israel’s security for all eternity, blah, blah, blah.

Soldiers, journalists and news consumers automatically refrain from asking questions. The navy captured another ship carrying symbolic aid, as if its passengers were Somali pirates. These were people of conscience from various countries carrying toys and medicine.

This was not the navy’s first daring operation of this kind, nor will it be the last. When there are no hostile aid ships on the horizon, the navy takes control of wretched Gazan boats, using water hoses or firing at its passengers – poor fishermen who only want to make a living at sea. This is the main activity unfolding off Gaza’s shores. A navy outfitted with the best arsenal in the world is hunting surfboards. One of the best-armed forces in the world is chasing children, examining old people’s documents and entering bedrooms to make arrests.

This past week has been a bad one for Israel. Its bad behaviour was manifested in the seizure of a ferry boat carrying medical supplies and activists to Gaza, the impounding of the vessel and humanitarian cargo, and the imprisonment of crew and passengers. What is more, Israel’s vio- lations of human rights and international law were documented in detail in important studies issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The vessel, the Spirit of Humanity, a Greek-registered island ferry with 21 crew and peace activists and three tonnes of medical supplies on board, set sail from the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Monday morning, ex- pecting to reach Gaza’s fishing port on Tuesday afternoon.

A week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 20-foot containers of munitions, each weighing 14,000 tonnes, to Israel.

In the dying days of the Bush administration, and a week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign, followed by a land invasion of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 containers of munitions to Israel.

Each container was 20-feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tonnes. The shipment reportedly reached Israel last month at Ashod, 40 kiometres north of Gaza. The huge arsenal of munitions will replenish those expended in the Gaza War.

According to Amnesty International in the UK, the shipment included white phosphorous.

The international organization says 300 of the containers had been unloaded at Ashod in March by a German cargo ship, Wehr Elb.

The new delivery to Israel of a massive consignment of US munitions, revealed by Amnesty International today, throws into question whether President Obama will act to prevent the US fuelling further Israeli attacks against civilians that may amount to war crimes, as was perpetrated in Gaza.

According to new information received by Amnesty International, the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship which had been chartered and controlled by US Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded its cargo of reportedly over 300 containers at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just 40 km north of Gaza by road. The German ship left the USA for Israel on 20 December, one week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza, carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.

‘Legally and morally, this US arms shipment should have been halted by the Obama administration, given the extent of the evidence showing how military equipment and munitions of this kind were recently used by the Israeli forces for war crimes.

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